Downtown Pontiac roars back with new businesses and loft developments WITH VIDEO

Workers putting up the sign for Lafayette Market on Saginaw Street in Pontiac. Lafayette Place and Lafayette Market will have their grand opening on December 1st. Tuesday, November 20, 2012. The Oakland Press/TIM THOMPSON

Corinne Petras in on of the Lafayette Place lofts on Saginaw Street in Pontiac. Lafayette Place and Lafayette Market will have their grand opening on December 1st. Tuesday, November 20, 2012. The Oakland Press/TIM THOMPSON

December will bring a different kind of holiday cheer to downtown Pontiac: 60 new residential units, a grocery store and a 24-hour fitness center.

The area inside the Woodward Loop has had a net gain of 60 to 70 businesses since the beginning of 2011, said Downtown Business Association President Glen Konopaskie, and 90 percent of the residential units inside the Loop are occupied.

Konopaskie said he was walking downtown with a friend this summer who stopped and made this observation: "Listen, you can hear the heartbeat coming back."

At the corner of North Saginaw and Lafayette streets, developer Kyle Westberg's Lafayette Place Lofts development is preparing for a grand opening on Saturday, the day of the Holiday Extravaganza parade.

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"I think I've seen a dozen buildings being improved or painted in the last few months," Westberg said. "The community is embracing and seeing it's going to be positive for the downtown district and for Pontiac ... and so they're (making) improvements to their own properties."

Westberg's $19.8 million development, in the building that once housed a Sears department store, will include a 24-hour Anytime Fitness and the Lafayette Market grocery store.

"We've been all over the community, going to local churches, going to the senior centers, all the major employers and letting everybody know about the market that's coming. The excitement is overwhelming," Westberg said.

The Downtown Business Association's Konopaskie said the Lafayette Market is "the only fresh produce grocery store that we've got, so it's definitely something that the city itself needs."

Prices for the Lafayette Lofts' 46 units will range from $675 a month for a one-bedroom apartment to $1,295 for a two-bedroom unit.

West's company, West Construction Services, moved to downtown Pontiac from Troy in 2006.

"We were looking for an urban, walkable downtown area to relocate our offices, and we really fell in love with the historic fabric of the downtown district," Westberg said.

Just down the street from the Lafayette Place Lofts, father-and-son development team Jim and Greg Cunningham's Ten West Lofts are expected to open on Dec. 15.

The 14-unit development at the northwest corner of North Saginaw and West Huron streets is in a three-story 1884 building and was once home to First Federal Savings & Loan. Its conversion to the Ten West Lofts began in January at a cost of almost $3 million.

The Ten West Lofts building will have commercial tenants on its ground floor. Its 14 residential units range in price from $625 to $825 per month.

Greg Cunningham said economic activity has risen in downtown Pontiac in the past 12 months.

"I believe there's a lot of businesses that have come in that last year who are still thriving," he said. Cunningham is speaking with two or three different prospective tenants for the building's commercial space, he said.

Jim Cunningham has been investing in Pontiac real estate for 55 years, his son said, and the two own a total of about 20 properties in the city.

The Cunninghams bought the building at 10 West Huron Street in the late 1990s and rented space to various tenants before beginning the loft conversion.

Across the country, young people are moving into lofts in urban environments, Cunningham said: "They're popular with younger technical (workers) and professionals ... doctors and attorneys."

The Downtown Business Association's Konopaskie, who is also president of the downtown business Future Help Designs, said "almost everything that's been up for sale (downtown) has been sold. That's showing us that not only is the recovery happening, but outside developers believe it and they're coming in to invest now."